Runaway Bride
by justanoutlaw
Summary: Neal expected a lot of things from the Saturday afternoon crowd at the bar where he worked. What he wasn't expecting was a woman dressed in a wedding dress to waltz in, frazzled curls and clutching a veil along with a purse and a red leather jacket.


A very random AU one shot that came to my mind today when I woke up. I hope you all enjoy!

Warning: Not CS friendly, not even a little.

* * *

"Alright bud," Neal told his 4-year-old son, tucking him under the covers. "It's time for bed."

Henry let out a small whine. "But I'm not sleepy!"

"Well, it's getting late. So close your eyes, count some sheep, you'll get there."

Henry rolled his eyes, a trait he clearly got from his mother. "Tell me a story." He paused for a minute. "Please."

Neal grinned a bit. "A story? Which one?"

"Hmm…how did you meet Mommy?"

The older man chuckled, tipping his head back a bit and then rubbed his palms together. "Well, well, I guess you never did hear that one, have you?" Henry shook his head. "Alright kiddo, I'll tell you. The day I met your mother, was actually her wedding day…"

 **7 Years Ago**

Neal handed the tray of drinks to one of the waitresses, giving last minute orders. Never an uneventful day at Neverland, the beach bar where he worked. It was peak tourist season in the beach town in Maine, which meant there weren't just your usual drunks. Some families sat in the booths, girls in bikinis lined up at the bar, sipping mojitos. It would all die down in a few weeks, people would return to work and school. That would be it until the people from the city showed up to see the leaves change. Neal would be there, same as he always had for the past few years. He was used to the rush, he was used to the screaming over which game should be put on the T.V, he was even used to the shitty tips.

What he wasn't expecting was a woman dressed in a wedding dress to waltz in, frazzled curls and clutching a veil along with a purse and a red leather jacket.

His gaze met hers and he tried not to wince at the dress. He didn't know much about weddings; his own father had remarried the year before but it had been a small affair and Belle's dress had been mostly hidden by her pea coat. He did know, however, that this one was ripped from a 50s-costume shop. She was covered from the neck down in white lace and a very long train. She wasn't bothering to pick it up as she walked and he could see the sand that had now tainted it. She didn't seem to notice the people that were staring at her, she didn't seem to care. Her eyes fixated on the bar and she walked up to it, sitting down on the stool. She threw the items in her hand down on the granite.

"Beer, any kind, I don't care," she demanded.

Neal was still staring at her for a minute before he snapped out of it and grabbed her a bottle. She practically snatched it from him after he got the top off and started to down it. It was quite the sight.

"So…" Neal finally said after a few minutes. "Is Richard Gere going to show up any minute now?"

The woman looked up at him, her eyes narrowed. "Excuse me?"

"Well, you show up here in a wedding dress, clearly on the run. You know, like in that Julia Roberts movie."

"You're the cheesy rom-com type?" She let out a bitter laugh, looking him up and down. "Wouldn't have guessed."

It hadn't been his choice, but Tamara's. He suddenly started to wonder about her groom. Tamara hadn't been enough of an ass to dump him at the altar, but she might as well have…

"So, what is your story?" Neal asked, putting his hands on his hip.

"You don't want to hear it."

"I'm a bar tender. I listen to everyone's stories."

"I'm not everyone…" She scanned his name tag. "Neal."

"The least you could do is tell me your name."

"You want to know my name?"

"Well, if you stabbed the groom and ran, I'll have to confirm whether or not I saw you."

"You think if I stabbed my fiancé, I'd come here of all places," she gestured around the packed bar.

Neal shrugged. "Not all criminals are bright."

The woman rolled her eyes. "I didn't kill him; the running part is true though." She let out a sigh. "My name's Emma."

He grinned. "Well, very nice to meet you Emma." Emma just nodded and took another sip of her beer. "So, why'd ya run?"

"You don't want to hear my story."

"Try me."

Emma looked like she was considering it, but then she turned around. Her green eyes filled with panic and she turned back around.

"Shit! You have to hide me," she said.

"What?"

"Do you have a break room or something?"

"Yeah, but it's for employees only…"

"I'll pay you a hundred dollars, just let me hide there, please. My fiancé's brother is out there and I can't blend in here like this."

Neal looked out the door and saw a tall guy wearing a tux, walking around the beach. He did not look happy. Letting out a sigh, he glanced to the break room. His boss wasn't in, technically he was supposed to be running the place. He wouldn't be able to actually talk with Emma for a little bit, but he could at least give her a place to hide.

"Come with me," he said, finally. A grateful smile went across Emma's face and she hopped up, grabbing hold of her stuff. "Will!" He called out to his co-worker. "Watch the place for me, I won't be 5 minutes."

Emma followed him into the cramped break room where there was a card table and some chairs. Neal dug through a box and pulled out one of the spare shirts that had the bar's logo on it and tossed it to her. He pointed to another box.

"That's the lost and found, there's probably tons of pairs of pants in here." He saw Emma's face scrunch up in bewilderment and realized it was about the cutest thing he had ever seen. "It's a bar, it happens. Just…stay put."

Neal headed back to the front and went on with his shift for a while. He knew there was a window in the break room, there was a chance he was never going to see the mysterious runaway bride again. It seemed as though whoever was following her had gone and no one else came in to question the whereabouts of a blonde in a hideous wedding dress.

It wasn't for 2 hours until there was a lull that he could once again ask Will to watch the place and that he could head to the front. To his surprise, Emma was still there. Her hair was a tangled mess still, but she had changed into the shirt he had given her and some jeans she had found in the box. Her veil, jacket and purse were strewn out on the table, her cell phone in front of her. She seemed so much more down to Earth, even in the baggy tee and tangled mess of hair, she was still one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen.

"You're still here."

Emma looked up. "You told me to stay."

"I just…I assumed you'd leave." He gave her a small smile. "Glad you didn't." He reached back into the bar and grabbed a couple of beers before shutting the door and walking back over to her. He sat across from her and slid her a beer. "He left, just so you know."

Emma raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Your fiancé's brother," Neal clarified. "No one else came looking for you."

"Probably because I finally answered my mother's texts and told her she could tell everyone to go home."

Neal nodded, taking a sip of his beer. Typically, he didn't drink on the job, but his shift was almost over anyway. "So, you wanna talk about it now?"

Emma smiled a little, running her fingers through her wild mane. "Killian and I…"

"I'm sorry…Killian?" He snorted. "What sort of name is that?" After the words left his mouth, he was worried he had offended her, but she laughed too.

"I said the same thing when we first met," she admitted. "It's Irish."

"So, you were due to marry this Killian."

"That I was," Emma nodded.

"Yet, you ended up at my bar and from the looks of it…" He scanned her left hand. "No rings in sight."

Emma instinctively rubbed the now bare ring finger, biting her lip. It was only then that Neal noticed she had stuffed the wedding dress into the coat closet behind her. The thing took up almost all of it.

"I just couldn't do it."

"It took you until the day of to realize that?"

Emma shook her head. "I think a part of me always knew. The whole thing was just so fast. We've only been together 6 months."

"6 months?" Neal let out a low whistle. Even he and his ex-fiancé had been together for 2 years when he proposed.

"I just…I assumed it was right? I mean, I've heard stories of people getting married on their first dates so it didn't seem so crazy." She shrugged. "Then he kept pushing for us to do it soon. Again, I didn't see the issue. We pulled the whole thing together in 2 weeks."

"Wow…"

Emma laughed. "I know. I joked if he knew something I didn't, if I was pregnant or something. He just said no…but maybe I would be soon."

"Geez…"

"Yeah. He talked about me quitting my job, staying home, all that."

"And you agreed?"

"I thought I was in love."

"What changed?"

Emma smiled a bit fiddling with a strand of hair and picking at a cracked part of her cell phone case.

"I was getting ready with my mom, she was being really quiet which just isn't her. At all." Her smile faltered a bit. "She had always said my wedding day would be this big production, that we would have so much fun getting ready for it. But…" She trailed off, her smile completely fading.

"But what?"

"It was like she was getting ready for my funeral."

"Oh," Neal's brows furrowed in a mix of confusion and concern.

"I finally asked what was wrong and at first she said nothing, kept that fake smile on her face, so I persisted. Finally, she finished sorting my hair, looked me in the eye and asked if it was what I really wanted. I got all offended and said of course, but she just kept asking. She told me that I didn't have to do it."

Neal was unsure of what to say there. His father had mostly stayed out of his relationship with Tamara, probably for a similar reason to Emma's mother. He didn't think she was right for him. He had turned out to be right in the end.

"And that's what it took for you?"

"She said she would support whatever I wanted to do and that she loved me. She could just tell that I didn't want to walk down the aisle. I insisted that I did, so she went to get my father. Then I sat there thinking about it. Thinking about Killian, what he was expecting from me. I realized I didn't even know him, that I hadn't even been myself since I met him. I mean that dress…" She started laughing. "That's not even close to being my dream dress."

"I would certainly hope not. That thing seems to be built on what nightmares are built on," Neal told her with a smirk.

Emma let out another laugh. "It was his mother's, Killian's."

"She wanted you to wear it?"

"She died 10 years ago."

"So, he wanted you to wear a dead woman's dress. I can see why your mother thought she was dressing you for a funeral."

The two just sat there, laughing and looking at the monstrosity. They started laughing so hard that Emma was snorting and Neal had tears rolling down his cheeks. She held up the veil, showing it to him in detail.

"I mean this…" She could barely get it out. "Just look at the flowers."

"How did you even get all that," he gestured to her hair. "To fit under there?"

"Lots and lots of hairspray." Her eyes twinkled with glee and her laughs started to die down. "I don't think I realized how badly I needed that."

"Hey, what are bar tenders for?" Neal raised his glass and she clinked hers with his.

Emma nodded, smiling. "True. I won't get you in trouble, will I?"

"Nah, I'm the one in charge anyway. Will won't burn the place down."

"Do you own the place?"

"No, I've just been working here so long, I'm pretty much my boss' second in command."

"Ah," Emma nodded.

"What do you do?"

"I'm a cop, in Boston."

"A cop?" Neal raised an eyebrow. "And all this time I thought I was harboring a fugitive."

"Nah, just a runaway."

"So, what'd you mom say when you told her?"

"She pretended to hide her joy, but I'm sure she's smiling her real one again."

"You didn't have to listen to her."

"That's the thing, I normally don't. If I really wanted that, to be married to Killian, I'd be there right now. Alas…here I am."

"What made you choose Storybrooke of all places?"

"He used to be a fisherman, docked here a few times, said something about it was romantic. Yet, he wanted us to get married on the rooftop of a hardware store."

"Oh geez…what did you see in this guy again?"

Emma shrugged. "I'm getting older, a lot of my friends are settling down, tying the knot. I thought it was my one chance at a happy ending."

"Sometimes those take time," Neal told her. "I mean, my dad just got remarried a year ago and he's pushing 50."

"Well, I hope I don't have to wait that long," Emma looked him up and down. "What about you? Found your princess yet?"

Neal shook his head. "Thought I had. I was engaged for a bit until she broke it off."

Emma winced. "Runaway bride?"

Neal chuckled. "No, she had the decency to call it off 2 months beforehand."

"Well, see, to give you credit, she had more time than I," Emma replied with a smirk.

"We had also been dating 2 years."

"Alright, alright, you win. You did engagement better than me."

"Still had the same result."

The two sat there for a few more minutes, sipping their beers and looking each other up and down. Neal tried not to feel self-conscious as she took in his stained work shirt and khakis. His hair was most likely a mess and he hadn't been able to shave in a couple of days, these double shifts were going to likely be the death of him. Even so, she was smiling and had a look about her.

"When do you have to go back to Boston?" He asked.

"Well, I was supposed to go straight from here to the Bahamas for my honeymoon," she said. "But, my best friend Regina just texted me to confirm that my now ex-fiancé got drunk on some rum and has taken the tickets."

"You have some time off then? From work?"

"Yes, but no place to go."

A smile returned to Neal's face. "Well, it's not fancy or anything, but I do have a pull-out couch."

Emma raised an eyebrow. "You're inviting me to stay with you?"

"You could explore Storybrooke, take what sounds like a much needed vacation."

"How do I know you're not a serial killer?"

"Hey, I trusted you weren't one."

That smirk played across his lips again and she matched it, setting her beer down.

"Well, from what I've seen, it is a quaint town. Show me around? Unless you have to work?"

"I have 3 whole days off, been working nothing but doubles since one of our waitresses got the flu, but she's due back tomorrow."

"This sounds like the best offer I've had all day."

 **Back In The Present**

Henry was already asleep by the time the story had finished up. Neal made sure his son was tucked in nice and snug before getting up, heading towards the doorway. It was only then that he saw his beautiful wife, a smile on her face.

"You left some stuff out, you know," she teased him quietly as they headed into their own bedroom.

"Oh, did I?"

"You forgot about how the runaway bride who was only supposed to stay for a week, ended up staying forever."

Neal grinned. "That is true, it is the best part of all of it." He wrapped his arms around her waist, his forehead resting against hers.

It had been truly an unexpected turn of events. Emma crashed on his couch for about a week, headed back to Boston, only to return later that night with her stuff. She rented a loft near the local diner and got a job at Neverland where she worked alongside Neal and Will until there was an opening at the sheriff's station. The two had dated for 3 years (2.5 years longer than she had Killian, a year longer than he had Tamara) before he proposed. On their wedding day, she had worn a simple white dress with hints of red (the lace monstrosity had been shipped back to Killian with some money for dry cleaning). They married on the beach in front of Neverland, the staff, their parents and a few friends in attendance. Her mother had been beaming as she helped Emma get ready, no talk of possibly backing out of it. For the second time, a bride did enter the bar that day, this time her groom on her arm and a gaggle of guests behind them. There had been bad food, drinking and dancing. Henry had arrived just 9 short months after their honeymoon.

Neal had been right that day. Their happy ending hadn't been what they had expected.

It had been better.

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As always, prompts are accepted! Feel free to follow me on Tumblr. I have a main account (just-an-outlaw) where I post random fandoms and then a fanfiction account (justanoutlawfanfiction) where I accept prompts and answer questions about my series.


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